UK: Shopkeepers Protest Parking Ticket CameraFour hundred shop owners and local residents protest a parking ticket CCTV camera in a north London suburb.

Four hundred business owners in Palmers Green, a London, UK suburb, have signed a petition demanding the removal of a parking ticket camera. Installed in November, the closed circuit TV (CCTV) camera has been mailing out £40 (US $71) tickets to anyone attempting to shop in the area. Business has dropped sharply as a result.

"We are struggling to survive," Sarpur Hulusi, owner of a local dry cleaning business, told the Enfield Independent newspaper. "I think the council's motivation is to make money from every inch of tarmac available, but it is killing business off in this area."

Hulusi, 51, helped gather signatures for the petition after the camera cut his business in half.

The Enfield Council brushed aside the concern about the camera's effect on business. "If trade has dropped by 50 per cent as a result of CCTV cameras it would indicate a considerably high number of motorists were parking illegally beforehand and continue to do so," a spokesman said.